


Dog Days Just Begun

by alamorn



Category: Tomb Raider (Movie 2018)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 10:07:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16910940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alamorn/pseuds/alamorn
Summary: The hunt for Trinity doesn't start as well as might be hoped.





	Dog Days Just Begun

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ardentaislinn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardentaislinn/gifts).



> Title adapted from the lyrics to "Janie's Got a Gun"

Lu Ren wasn’t sure how Lara Croft had ended up the half-feral, under socialized creature that she was, given that she was, quite literally, an heiress and a socialite, but he wasn’t complaining. Half because he quite liked half-feral, dangerous women, and half because her apology-slash-thanks for their trip to Hell had escalated quickly from offering to buy him a new boat to offering to buy him a house, anywhere he wanted, to giving him a credit card and telling him to go wild.

Currently, he was going wild by getting at least three years of stress pummeled out of his back by a stern older woman with hands like steel clubs. When she’d scraped him off the massage table, he planned to make his way to some ridiculous, over-priced restaurant and eat ridiculous, over-priced food.

The masseuse had an elbow in a knot he’d developed the day Lara walked into his life when his phone rang. His phone that only Lara had the number to, since Lara had bought it for him, once they’d made it to England.

He heaved a sigh. “I’ve got to take that,” he told the masseuse, who scowled.

“Answering calls is no way to relax,” she said.

“Yeah,” he agreed, and eeled off the table, clutching the towel to his waist to preserve his modesty, and retrieved his phone from his jeans pocket. “Is it too much to hope that you’re calling with good news?” he asked.

“Sadly, yes,” she said. “Can you get back to Croft Manor as soon as possible?”

He glanced at the masseuse, who shook her head and left the room. “Be there soon,” he said. 

 

Lara wanted him to help her destroy Trinity, which she told him in her family mausoleum. It was, objectively, weird and a little bit crazy. But Trinity’d killed both their fathers, if Lara was right, and he had no reason to doubt her after Yamatai.

“One question,” he said, staring at the map she’d rolled out, all the little dots that she wanted to exterminate. “Why do you want a drunk boat captain to help you this time? I don’t even have a boat anymore.”

“Or a drink,” she said, coming to stand next to him, close enough that he could feel the heat of her. She hesitated a while longer, staring at the circle around London. “I just found out that one of the few people I trusted is a Trinity agent. Who knows how many others are as well?” Finally she looked at him, with all the frank forthrightness he’d come to expect from her. “Drunk boat captain or not, I can trust you. And besides, you’re pretty good in a fight.” She aimed a lopsided smile at him, and he couldn’t resist answering it with one of his own.

“Where do we start?”

“I’ve always wanted to go to Egypt,” she said.

 

The IDs Lara got them were married, and apparently, he’d taken her name. He raised his eyebrows at her. 

“What?” she said defensively, throwing a shirt at his face. He jammed it into her suitcase, a hard-sided little thing that wasn’t going to be making the return trip, if this one went at all like their first.

“Louis,” he said.

“Look, they’ll be on the lookout for either of us on our own. Two Americans — they won’t be looking for that.”

“How’s your American accent?” he asked. “Mine’s not great.”

“If you have a better idea, I’m listening,” she said.

“No, no, we can do it your way,” he grinned, “but if you wanted to get married, all you had to do was ask.”

She rolled her eyes.

 

They made it through Customs with surprising ease, and settled in their coach seats with only a little complaining from Lara.

“Who bought the tickets?” he reminded her. 

“Shut up,” she said, and fell asleep on his shoulder within ten minutes. It was…nice.

Of course, it didn’t last. There was a hard jolt of turbulence halfway through, and as Lara jolted to wakefulness, a flight attendant made her way through the cabin, reassuring passengers. When she reached them, she leaned close and hissed, “Congratulations, Miss Croft.” Before either of them could react, there was another bump of turbulence, and the flight attendant caught herself on Lara’s shoulder.

Lara yelped in pain and Lu grabbed the attendant’s wrist before she could move on.

“Careful, Mr. Ren,” she said. “People are watching.”

“What did you do?” Lara demanded, pulling the shoulder on her shirt down, revealing a bright point of blood. “What did you give me?”

“Don’t worry,” the attendant said. “If you follow our instructions, you’ll get the antidote.”

Lu’s grip tightened, and the attendant’s smug smile got brittle around the edges. She started to peel his fingers off one by one and, reluctantly, he let her. “Someone wants to meet you, Miss Croft, and they have a great deal of respect for you. This is just a precaution. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

Lu released her and she moved on without a look back. “So much for our covers,” he said. “How do you feel?”

“Pissed,” Lara said. “And my shoulder hurts. But I’m fine.”

 

By the time they landed, she was less fine. She was too proud to lean on him, but she was dizzy, holding her head at an angle to walk straight. Lu’d taken her bags without asking, and hovered by her elbow as she meandered across the terminal until they spotted a man in a suit holding a sign that read _LARA CROFT_.

Lara’s hand twitched into a fist as they made their way over to him, but she didn’t, in the end, punch him.

“Miss Croft, Mr. Ren,” the man said, tucking his sign under his arm. “This way. Let me take your bags.”

“No,” Lu said and the man didn’t quite shrug so much as give off an air of shrugging. It was unbearably upper class.

“As you will.” He directed them to a sleek black sedan.

Lu half expected the mysterious someone to be inside, but they had the back seat to themselves. Lara had started to tremor, shaking where she sat. Lu grabbed her hand to hold it still and squeezed. She squeezed back.

The man got in the drivers seat and glanced at them through the rearview. “You’ll receive the antidote at the destination, Miss Croft, never fear.”

“How reassuring,” she said snidely.

They held hands through the ride, Lara’s sweaty against his, until they arrived at an unassuming little building, obviously expensive despite its size. The chauffeur ushered them out of the car and into the building, where an elegantly dressed woman sat at an elegant table. Lu found that he missed the honest awfulness of being shot at on an unmapped jungle island.

“Ana.” Lara sounded hollow. “Of course.”

“Lara, I don’t want this to end the way it did with your father. I quite like you, silly girl that you are.”

“No,” Lara said. “It won’t.”

“If you think I don’t know you well enough to hear a threat,” Ana said, “you truly don’t know me at all.”

“I quite clearly don’t,” Lara said.

“You know me well enough to know I keep my word.”

“So do I,” Lara said, swaying where she stood.

Lu took a step closer, so he could catch her if she went down. “Maybe the time to play hardball,” he whispered in her ear, “is after you’ve gotten the antidote.”

She looked at him, then back at Ana. “What do you want from me?”

“Absolutely nothing,” Ana said. “Continue with your life as you were, merely with more money. Don’t worry your head about Trinity. You like adventure, and you have enough money to go somewhere new any time you get bored. Why not take advantage of that?”

Lara’s jaw flexed and jumped. He could almost hear her teeth grinding. “Fine,” she said. “Are we done here?”

“Almost,” Ana said. “To ensure your cooperation, we’ll be keeping your friend. He’ll be treated very well, don’t you worry.”

“No,” Lara said, as two men appeared from nowhere, their arms steel bars around Lu’s. “No, no, don’t you _dare!_ ”

She almost fell as she tried to strike at the one closer to her. 

“I’ll be fine,” he reassured her, as they dragged him away. “Lara, I believe in you. Do you hear me, Lara? I believe in you.”

Despite her wooziness, her eyes were bright and understanding. “I hear you.”

Lu Ren didn’t fight as they dragged him away. Lara would get him out sooner or later, and he’d be more useful to her on the inside anyway.


End file.
